The present invention relates to a portable terminal apparatus, a control method therefor, and a recording medium which records a control program and, more particularly, to a portable terminal apparatus having a camera which senses an image, a control method therefor, and a recording medium which records a control program.
Recent portable terminal apparatuses such as a cell phone are equipped with a camera function. Especially a foldable portable terminal apparatus has two cameras: one camera is attached to a front surface having a keyboard and LCD, and the other one is attached to a rear surface on the sub-LCD side which serves as an outer surface even when the portable terminal apparatus is folded. These cameras can photograph still and moving pictures, similar to a digital camera.
Of the two mounted cameras, the camera on the rear surface faces outside in the folded state and does not operate in this state. If necessary, this camera function can be used, and the portable terminal apparatus can grasp its current situation to a certain degree.
The user of the portable terminal apparatus usually holds it in a pocket or bag, and the portable terminal apparatus often rings in the pocket or bag. When the portable terminal apparatus rings, the user takes it out and pushes the talk button. In this series of operations, the ringing tone is silent in the bag to people around the user, but suddenly becomes loud when the portable terminal apparatus is taken out from the bag. The ringing tone becomes harsh to the ear.
As a technique of suppressing uncomfortableness of the ringing tone to people around the portable terminal apparatus, there is proposed a technique disclosed in, e.g., reference 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-184013 (pp. 2-4, FIG. 1)). In reference 1, the ambient brightness is determined on the basis of an image sensing signal from the camera of a cell phone. The ringing tone level is set to an initial one when it is dark around the portable terminal apparatus, and to a level lower than the initial level when it is bright.
However, control more suited to the surroundings than the above-described one is required by more finely controlling the ringing tone level over time and more accurately determining the ambient brightness.